Therapeutic Jurisp & Sexual Predator Laws - Defense for SVP

deprives one charged with a crime of any defense available under the law at the time it wascommitted. Id. at 42 (citing Calder v. Bull, 3 Dall. 386 (1789)).n263 Hendricks, 117 S. Ct. at 2095.n264 A disturbing corollary of constitutional litigation involving commitment laws in general andsexual predator laws in particular is the seeming severance by courts of the question of whetherindividuals are being denied their constitutional right to treatment from the question of whethersuch commitment laws are constitutional. Increasingly, courts may find that individuals committedunder these laws are not receiving constitutionally adequate treatment but that the plaintiffs'remedies are limited to requiring the state to provide such treatment. Courts are very reluctant tostrike down the laws as unconstitutional or to order the release of individuals simply because thestate is not providing them with constitutionally adequate treatment.n265 See supra note 6.n266 See Robert M. Cover, Violence and the Word, 95 Yale L.J. 1601 (1986) [hereinafter Cover,Violence]; Robert M. Cover, The Supreme Court 1982 Term, Forward: Nomos and Narrative, 97Harv. L. Rev. 4 (1983).n267 Cover, Violence, supra note 267, at 1608.n268 Id. at 1609.n269 See Robert F. Schopp, Sexual Predators and the Structure of the Mental Health System:Expanding the Normative Focus of Therapeutic Jurisprudence, 1 Psychol. Pub. Pol'y & L. 161(1995). Robert Schopp has started this important enterprise by developing and applying anormative TJ theory by examining the role of criminal law and the role of civil commitment law.His brilliant pioneering work provides one way of approaching this crucial enterprise.n270 See supra note 269 and accompanying text.n271 See, e.g., Winick, supra note 8.n272 See, e.g., La Fond, supra note 96.n273 See Winick, supra note 8.n274 See id.n275 See supra notes 209-11 and accompanying text.n276 See House Subcommittee #3 of the House Judiciary Committee, Oct. 25, 1971, Part II, at15357 (statement of Philip Zimbardo, Professor at Stanford), reprinted in Richard G. Singer,Rights of the Imprisoned: Cases, Materials and Directions 551-54 (1974).n277 Id. at 552.n278 Id.